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Creative Creativity Iris Worldwide

Creative agency mentality needs less fraternity and more flavour

By Ed Cheong, Executive Creative Director

January 31, 2018 | 3 min read

This isn’t another thought piece about creativity.

Ed Cheong Iris

Ed Cheong is executive creative director of Iris Singapore

Nor is it about bravado, independence, data analytics or 2018’s latest buzzwords.

It’s simply about the agency’s mentality.

I don’t have the luxury of running the biggest creative and production department in town.

But here, we believe that the size of our mentality is more important than the actual size of the team.

Apart from local talents, our seats are filled with folks from South Africa, Germany, China, Brazil, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and even a Vietnamese writer who hails from Ukraine.

Some might argue with a pitchfork that we’ve got to champion our own.

Well, I’m Singaporean. And I don’t need any protection.

What I need is the recent cool weather to return.

But I digress.

So why does having a motley creative crew even matter?

Mentality.

Minds that are open to anyone are open to anything.

I have learnt so much from the colourful characters surrounding me.

Singapore is a tiny country and the local advertising fraternity can be painfully small with the same few cats playing the same musical chair.

Imagine having a creative department that has everyone cut from the same cloth, sharing the same borrowed interests, sitting in the same room, and trying to make a difference.

That’s mental.

And the world’s already crazy enough.

Ed Cheong is the executive creative director of Iris Singapore.

Creative Creativity Iris Worldwide

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